Jan Jakub Ryba: Czech Christmas Mass

Jakub Ryba’s Czech Christmas Mass became a musical symbol of Czech Christmas shortly after it was composed in 1796. The exultant tones of Ryba’s immortal work suggest the picture of the Czech Bethlehem – that is, the Bethlehem as it was created by painter Josef Lada. Similarly as in Lada’s charming drawings, the Christmas mass composed by Jakub Ryba is frequented by throngs of ordinary village people who, with joy and hope, make a pilgrimage to the Biblical Bethlehem to bow at the Saviour’s crib. Craving for a better life, calm and peace, was equally topical in Ryba’s time, during the Napoleonic wars, as well as today.

The ancient practice of conducting the Christmas messes required the insertion of pastorals in between the individual parts of the mess. The Prague State Opera has enriched its concerts with the reading of Christmas poems by Adam Václav Michna of Otradovice, Karel Jaromír Erben, and Jaroslav Vrchlický.

Premiere: Dec 6, 1998

Programm

• Daniel Alois František Milčinský: Pastoral a 3 (an instrumental pastoral)
• Kyrie – Gloria
• Adam Václav Michna z Otradovic: Christmas Greetings Post
  Radovan Lukavský – Recitation
• Graduale
• Jakub Šimon Jan Ryba: Charming Nightingale (pastoral)
  Ludmila Vernerová – soprano
• Karel Jaromír Erben: Christmas Eve
  Radovan Lukavský – Recitation
• Credo – Offertorium – Sanctus
• Jakub Šimon Jan Ryba: Lily bloomed out of a rose (pastoral)
  Jana Levicová / Sylva Čmugrová – mezzo-soprano
• Benedictus
• Jaroslav Vrchlický: Christmas
  Radovan Lukavský – Recitation
• Agnus dei